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All these actors/actresses think that just because they're talented in their respective areas that makes them qualified to act all self-righteous and preach about everything under the sun. Cinema oru kalaaroopam aayi kaananam.. athile kadhaapathrangal kalaasrishtikalum.. which means that the vast majority are fictional and the actors are only portraying a dreamed-up character. They may have elements of reality and may reflect people we come across in our everyday lives or in society. Ippo oru mahaanadan sthreekale patti mosham dialogues paranjathil ee kochu disappointed aanennu parayunnu.. so, let's say actors refrain from bad language in the future, what's next.. we don't show violence in films because it'll mislead youth? then we don't show drinking and smoking or drug use in films? or we don't show extramarital relationships? Or swearing? it's a truly slippery slope. Cinemaye cinema aayi maathram kandal theerunna prashname ulloo.. athinulla saamaanya budhi illengil pinne paranjittentha kaaryam. And I don't get why she singled out Kasaba and Mammootty. You could pick almost any mainstream actor in any language or country and find a movie or a dialogue some section of society will find offensive.. the moment we start screaming out to censor content in movies for the "good" of society, we've already lost the battle in my opinion. Rajan Zachariah poleyulla ishtampole police officers nammude naattilundu.. he simply did justice to the role like he was asked to by his director and script writer.

All these actors/actresses think that just because they're talented in their respective areas that makes them qualified to act all self-righteous and preach about everything under the sun. Cinema oru kalaaroopam aayi kaananam.. athile kadhaapathrangal kalaasrishtikalum.. which means that the vast majority are fictional and the actors are only portraying a dreamed-up character. They may have elements of reality and may reflect people we come across in our everyday lives or in society. Ippo oru mahaanadan sthreekale patti mosham dialogues paranjathil ee kochu disappointed aanennu parayunnu.. so, let's say actors refrain from bad language in the future, what's next.. we don't show violence in films because it'll mislead youth? then we don't show drinking and smoking or drug use in films? or we don't show extramarital relationships? Or swearing? it's a truly slippery slope. Cinemaye cinema aayi maathram kandal theerunna prashname ulloo.. athinulla saamaanya budhi illengil pinne paranjittentha kaaryam. And I don't get why she singled out Kasaba and Mammootty. You could pick almost any mainstream actor in any language or country and find a movie or a dialogue some section of society will find offensive.. the moment we start screaming out to censor content in movies for the "good" of society, we've already lost the battle in my opinion. Rajan Zachariah poleyulla ishtampole police officers nammude naattilundu.. he simply did justice to the role like he was asked to by his director and script writer.

This entire issue is being blown out of proportion. I don't agree with some of her points, but I don't think she deserves much of the backlash she's been getting from fans.

This is the major portion of what she said:
?A great actor mouths dialog insulting women. It is sad when a great actor who has done so many movies and proved his mettle delivers dialogs insulting women. Many people say that movies just reflect life and society. That is true. But the question is whether we glorify (negative tendencies). There lies the borderline. When a hero says such things, that is definitely glorifying it. This is kind of granting a license to other men to do similar things.
...

No one can deny the fact that in Kasaba there were some cheap double-meaning dialogues that were placed for the purpose of getting hoots and whistles from the audience (similar to the countless double meaning dialogues in other mass masala films in India). The makers did this to drive up the box office stakes of their film. These dialogues very clearly put male dominance over women in a "cool" light and were undoubtedly misogynistic. But that type of stuff still sells at the box office and so the makers just did what most business-minded people would do when trying to make a profitable mass film---they placed those lines in their movie.

She did not call Mammootty himself a misogynist. She didn't accuse him of actually mistreating women in real life or holding prejudices against women. She said that the film (specifically the hero's character) was misogynistic and that she was personally disappointed that a top actor and someone she considers a great actor would agree to include and mouth those dialogues. In her opinion, our actors should not be doing that in films because it promotes the wrong message

Now what "fans" have done is interpret what she said as a personal attack against Mammootty. I think she would have said the same exact thing if the hero of Kasaba was Mohanlal, Dileep, Prithviraj or anyone else. Identity of the "great actor" is irrelevant to her argument. The fans claim she has disrespected a senior actor by "calling out" his movie. I'm sorry but she is 100% entitled to her opinion and just because he's a top actor in the industry doesn't mean that his film/role choices should be immune to all criticism.

Where I disagree with her (but again, she is entitled to her opinion):
1) Is the average movie goer going to see those dialogues and all of a sudden think it's acceptable to act that way?

No. I would argue that there is a large section of society who see cinema as pure entertainment. They're not deriving their morals from what they see on screen. They just go to the movie hall to enter a different world and try to enjoy that for a few hours and then walk out back to reality. Are there some people who are actually misogynistic already who then see those type of scenes/dialogues and 100% support/agree with them? Yes definitely, but those ppl already came in with that mindset--the movie didn't create it. So then the question is what percentage of the audience actually sees these type of dialogues/scenes on screen and then decides in their mind "oh this must be acceptable in real life!" I would argue that percentage is negligible. Maybe some kids/young adolescents might think like that, but I don't think parents would be bringing their young children to see movies like this in the first place. If you want to get rid of misogyny, you need to tackle its root causes in actual society---cinema is not the root cause.

2) Should our top heroes be responsible for the moral value of their films?

No, in my opinion. At the end of the day their job is to act with the material that is provided to them. They're under no obligation to refuse films or scripts based on moral considerations (unless they want to). It is up to the writer to decide whether those type of dialogues will be in the film or not (based on how much they themselves care whether its morally wrong or not). I dont believe in censorship for this in cinema because I don't think that cinema is what creates misogyny in the first place.